Gametocyte infectivity by direct mosquito feeds in an area of seasonal malaria transmission: implications for Bancoumana, Mali as a transmission-blocking vaccine site.
- 1 September 1998
- journal article
- Published by American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
- Vol. 59 (3) , 481-486
- https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.1998.59.481
Abstract
Infectivity of gametocytemic volunteers living in Bancoumana, a village 60 km from Bamako, Mali, was determined by direct feeds of laboratory-reared Anopheles gambiae s. l. Gametocytemic adolescents (10-18 years old) were as infectious to mosquitoes as younger volunteers and appear to be a more suitable population for testing transmission-blocking efficacy as compared with adults (> 18 years old). To begin to validate the membrane-feeding assay, sera collected from these same volunteers were subjected to a standard membrane-feeding assay. The data suggest that areas with intense but seasonal transmission might be feasible sites for testing transmission-blocking vaccines because of the high gametocytemic rates, high mosquito infectivity rates, and lack of pre-existing humoral-mediated transmission-blocking activity. The differences observed between field-based direct mosquito feeds and laboratory-based membrane feeding assays suggests that caution be used in interpreting Phase I study results in which laboratory-based membrane-feeding assays are used as a surrogate for vaccine efficacy.Keywords
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